Revenue Performance and Marketing- Measure up for results

What’s the real link between your revenue results and marketing efforts?

Often described as vague or at worst tenuous, making the connection between marketing and the bottom line has never been (and probably never will be) easy. Now research shows that getting the right measurement tools in place could be half the struggle.

As content becomes digitised and consumer choice is made king - by instant search engines and next-to-zero switching and search costs online - marketing has never been more vital to creating a value-added, attractive brand offering for customers.

CANDDi has always been a staunch proponent of using more strategic metrics than broad volume indicators to track marketing’s progress - ultimately measured as the impact on sales.

It now seems such an approach may (literally) pay dividends when it comes to increasing revenue…

A recent DemandGen report found that:

• **9 out of 10 (88%) marketers surveyed increased their efforts to measure performance by analytics over the last year. **

• Marketers with greater access to and experience in using analytics tools for performance measurement are able to track and respond more effectively to:

• which programs generated the highest quality leads
• which campaigns created the strongest ROI in terms of leads that actually converted to closed deals.

Figures like these demonstrate the need for accurate marketing analytics for a positive effect on revenue to be realised, understood and positively managed.

Optimisation of marketing performance should correspond to better results at the end of the sales pipeline.

By internalising factors such as lead conversion at funnel stages rather than simple traffic numbers, marketers can improve sophisticated metrics such as prospect interaction optimisation. Such efforts can then be liked directly to revenue results.

Traditionally, marketing departments using volume-based metrics as performance indicators have caused a misalignment of goals between sales and marketing. As marketers increasingly take on responsibility for revenue targets, such broad-stroke metrics will no longer be adequate. A symbiosis between sales and marketing teams is becoming ever more necessary for success.

Analytics tools and the ability for firms to effectively manage and apply actions from collected data is now a competitive differentiator. With serious opportunities for revenue out-performance.